Friday, June 20, 2014

Sourdough Surprises: Lemon Parmesan Squash Oven Fries

I have a confession to make:

I have never deep fried anything.

This has nothing to do with eating
healthy – it's not the deep frying that adds calories, it's the
batter. Anyone who knows me well knows my love of chicken wings, and
I was about to give in to the local food truck that was serving deep
fried Cadbury eggs (fortunately or unfortunately, they ran out before
I got there). It's the fryer itself. I'm careful in the kitchen, but
that does not prevent me from getting grease splatters every time I
cook bacon, and then there's the spaghetti squash knife incident that
has left me with no feeling in the side of my pinky finger. So a pot
full of hot oil is a danger zone. But Sourdough Surprises picked fry
batter this month...what was I going to do?

Then one day I was putting chicken
wings on a broiler pan, ready to bake...and it hit me: almost
everything that is fried can still be done in the oven. And it just
so happens to be zucchini/yellow squash season, which is also one of
my favorite vegetables. The zucchini selection at the market was a
tad picked over, but there was a pretty straight yellow squash that
clocked in at a full pound, ready for the taking.

I completely winged this recipe:

Sourdough Lemon Parmesan Yellow
Squash Oven Fries

Serves 3-4

Batter:

1/2 cup ripe sourdough starter

2 tblsp mayonnaise

2 tblsp grated Parmesan

2 tblsp flour

2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

2 tsp salt

Cut 1 lb zucchini or summer squash into fry shapes and set aside.
Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Whisk all batter ingredients together. Dredge squash through batter.
Place on cookie sheet

Bake at 350 until desired level of doneness, about 20-25 minutes
(Mine were roasting with chicken and took about 24 minutes)

I can't say these turned out exactly as I hoped (oven squash fries
are normally breaded, not battered). But the taste was amazing...the
sourdough and Parmesan complemented the gentle squash flavor
perfectly. Even my father, the one who prefers familiar food, loved
them. I could have eaten the entire batch myself (although, going
back to the batter being what adds calories, a mere third of this
recipe still clocks in at 132 calories using light mayo).

It was still all the mess of frying (without the danger of hot oil
splatters!), and quite a bit of trouble. But the taste was
tempting...I just might have to make these again.

Frying is scary, but if you just use a tiny bit of oil (like an inch or so) deep and work on the back burner you can be super careful. And yes, I am always a messy, dangerous cook as well. LOL. These turned out great, glad you tried an oven baked version, was wondering if anyone would!